Monday, April 20, 2009

Last week, on April 15, it was the official opening of Tokyo Disneyland Monsters Inc Ride and Go Seek. Today, i have a "monstrous" photo report for you, thanks to Paul Hsu and Yumiko Murata, Disney and more contributors. You will see everything, just like if you were there!

Let's begin by the beginning, and at Tokyo Disneyland when there is a new attraction the beginning is always a looong line. Even if you arrive early in the morning, it is the rush to be the first one in the line. What kind of rush? Well, THAT kind of rush!(Photos by Yumiko Murata)

You got the idea? Of course, if you can get a "priority admission ticket", that's the best.(Photo by Yumiko Murata)

Well, now that you are in line with hundreds of others TDL guests, the good point in all this is that you'll have plenty of time to look at the queue decor... and it's exactly what we are going to do now.

But also the last news from Monsters Inc, on the Monster Vision LCD screen.(Photos by Yumiko Murata)

When you enter Monsters Inc attraction building you arrive in the famous rotunda, where the reception is.(Photo by Yumiko Murata)

Great murals reproduce the one you can see in the movie.(Photos by Paul Hsu)

Let's have a closer look to this reception desk...(Photos by Paul Hsu)

Line goes on in the back of the reception, with another Monster Vision screen displaying messages to the guest.(Photos by Paul Hsu)

The line moves inside Monsters Inc Company decor until you arrive to the "security department" where the boarding room is. (Photos by Paul Hsu)

And here we go for the ride! As you know, each guest have a flashlight to "find" the monsters hidden in the decor of Monstropolis. Some of them do react when they're "hit" by the light. I didn't do the ride myself, but i've tried to put the pictures of each scene in chronological order, let's hope i'm right - if not, forgive me. Also, it's pretty dark in there, and Paul and Yumiko did a great job but some pictures may not be totally sharp. I count on your understanding. Because of the darkness it was also impossible to get a picture showing the whole Monstropolis street. All pictures of the ride are by Yumiko Murata.

As for the story line, here is what Mark, WDI Imagineer was saying about it in Lee MacDonald's article previously published in "Tales from the Laughing Place" and also on Disney and more recently: "The guests have been invited back to the Monsters, Inc. factory and Monstropolis along with Boo to play flashlight tag with the monsters.After the load/unload area we meet Boo and Sulley in the simulation room. We see that Boo is anxious to get started but Sulley cautions that we aren’t quite ready to play as it is still daytime."

"However in the next scene we see Mike at the main power switch for the entire city. We discover it is now time to play and with a flick of the switch both the factory and the city turn to darkness. One of our secondary monsters is hiding in a toolbox and as the city powers down he zaps Mike in the eyeball as the first tag.”

“Our first big scene is the locker room and our flashlights are engaged as we enter the room. Lockers are on both side of the room and we can hear monsters rattling behind the locker doors saying things like “We can’t catch me!” Guests will be able to engage the monsters by pointing their flashlights on the activated lockers which will cause the doors to open and reveal the monster to tag.”

"Next the ride vehicles enter the Laugh Floor. Mike is in a pickle as he is being stretched between two moving doors with Smitty and Needleman trying to help out. Again Randall will be attempting to interfere with the harmless game but Sulley is there is protect his playmate...Following the Laugh Floor the vehicles transport guests on to the streets of the city."

"Imagineers have also recreated the Harryhausen’s restaurant where guests can see the sushi chef..."

“Up until now Sulley has always known where Boo was but as we arrive in the basement of Monsters, Inc. he loses her and you will see the sense of panic that overcomes him,” Mark explains. “However we will know that Boo is still playing hide and seek but she doesn’t realize that Randall is directly behind her. Mike will pop up and zap her with his flashlight exclaiming “Got you! Game over!” and he accidentally pushes Randall down the garbage chute..."

"...The flashlights are switched off but we need to complete the storytelling. We will see a live-action Randall getting trashed, thrashed and crunched in the compactor and we have the funny gag of a cube of Randall garbage popping off the end.”

At the end of the ride, guess who's here? That's right, Roz in person - well, actually, in "audio-animatronic".

Two last posters before you unload...(Photos by Paul Hsu and Yumiko Murata)

When Paul and Yumiko exited the attraction - they did it twice - it was the night, but the crowds were still there!(Photo by Yumiko Murata)

So, i suppose it is time to have a look at the brand new Monsters Inc Company Store, the decor and the merchandise items...(Photo by Yumiko Murata)

More pictures of the Monsters Inc Company Store, by Paul Hsu.

On the TV screen over the counter guests can see Monsters Inc ads, and Paul had the good idea to take a picture of each of them. Please click on the two mosaic pictures below to discover all of them!

Let's end with Paul pictures of more merchandise items, including some really cool bags for women.

Well, i think we can send some big thanks to Paul Hsu and Yumiko Murata for their great report, feel free as always to leave some kind comments for them!

I remember you that you can see videos of the ride on a previous post HERE.

All pictures: copyright Paul Hsu and Yumiko Murata whom i thanks a lot!WDI imagineer interview: copyright Tales from the Laughing Place

8 comments:

Great pics - thanks for the walkthrough. It looks like another grand slam for the Tokyo park - as skeptical as I am about the Monsters theme in that area of the park, it's been a long time since Florida has seen a new dark ride of that magnitude.

One question - the ride system looks similar to that of Midway Mania. Is it the same system, and if so do we know what they're calling it? It's not an omnimover, or an EMV - it's something new...

Great pictures, the first of such quality of this ride that I've seen.

The ride really looks like a piece of quality. I've watched the on-ride video (I couldn't resist, I normally do not tend to do it before I have been there myself...) and I think I've told it before, but the animatronics on this ride look really awesome.

Unfortunately I'm one of the guys that thinks this ride is in the wrong place, since it has nothing to do with "The world of Tomorrow", thematically it would even better fit into Fantasyland.

Dear Tangaroa, I think you're right, it looks more like the same ride system of Toy Story Mania.But there is more than that, in fact it seems the structure and look of the vehicles ( three vehicle attached together ) looks really like the first vehicle version they've envisioned for TSM.....as you will see in two days in a future article.

I noticed that too! The ride vehicles are almost exactly the same as a propsed TSM vehicle you can see as concept art in the Blue Sky Cellar. Perhaps they were planning to save themselves a bit of money by using the same vehicle with a different paintjob at first.

Thanks for this massive report Alain. Great pictures and description! I rather look at those than a noisy onride video. However, the actual ride where you point-and-shoot your flashlight seems kind of short, or is it only briefly described?ALSO: Please never again add videos to your blog like the trailer of the Japanese anime that start playing by themselves. Every time i open Disneyandmore the stupid trailer plays somewhere down below and disturbs my music. The first time i had to look through dozens of tabs to find out where the music was coming from!

ALex, i agree with you about the japanese trailer, it upset me, too! I tried to find the same one on youtube, not going on automatically, but didn't find it. Don't worry, tomorrow, the article won't be on the front page anymore!

According to this wikipedia article:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsters,_Inc._Mike_%26_Sulley_to_the_Rescue!Both Midway Mania and Ride & Go Seek use the same ride system. Which would be plausible because they share a lot of similarities: they are both next-gen. interactive rides with "guns" that trigger something, they were designed and constructed around the same time and on the pictures I've seen, they have a lot in common. Unfortunately, the Wikipedia article does not cite any sources, so it is not that reliable.

For some more background info on the new Ethernet based technology of Midway Mania, I found this article extremely interesting:

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